The former owner of a Medford bus company has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a $9 million bank fraud scheme.
John Mensch was the owner and operator of East End, a business which provided transportation services to students on Long Island and other locations.
The U.S. Department of Justice says he maintained multiple accounts and received expedited check-clearing privileges at banks between 2017 and 2018. He used those privileges to acquire “near-immediate access to the deposited funds before the underlying checks cleared.”
Investigators say he and other company executives engaged in an elaborate “check-kiting” operation, passing fraudulent checks between accounts in order to keep the business operating and appear financially stable.
Mensch pleaded guilty to the bank fraud conspiracy in October of 2024. In addition to his prison sentence, he is also ordered to pay back the millions in restitution.